Siege of Aszód

Siege of Aszód
Part of the Zemplen War
Smoke rises over Aszód from Syaran shelling
Date 25 February 2009 – 18 June 2010 (1 year, 3 months, 25 days) Location Aszód, Ruvelka Result See Aftermath
Belligerents
Ruvelka	Syara
Commanders and leaders
Edviná Molnár	Dragomir Zhelev
Units involved
Imperial Armed Forces of Ruvelka	Syaran Commonality Armed Forces
Strength
300,000 troops	200,000 troops
Casualties and losses
8,674 killed 23,409 wounded	5,622 killed 13,451 wounded

The Siege of Aszód was the siege of Ruvelka's fourth largest city and largest port on the Western Siduri Coast for Ruvelka. The siege started on 25 February 2009 after Syaran forces cut off the city by capturing the vital road junction of Akhtenis 40 kilometers from Aszód, severing the city and Ruvelkan forces inside from the rest of Ruvelka. The siege was lifted on 18 June 2010 when Syaran forces withdrew in the wake of Operation Homefront.

The Syarans had hoped to capture Aszód early on in the war due to it's industrial capacity and port facilities, the elimination of which would cripple Ruvelkan operations in the south along the Matra Mountains. In August 2008 the Syaran Commonality Navy sunk the Ruvelkan Southern Flotilla and instituted a blockade of the city from the sea. Syaran forces of Army Group Gamma had avoided Aszód in 2008 to focus on destroying the Ruvelkan Southern Army Group. By 2009 Syaran efforts were refocused on the port city in the hopes that it's capture would serve to cripple Ruvelkan manufacturing and transportation services throughout southern Ruvelka. Syara launched Operation Synaspismos on 18 Feburary and proceeded to break through Ruvelkan lines with heavy artillery fire that the Ruvelkans could not match. On 25 Feburary the Syaran 90th Mechanized Infantry Division seized control of Akhtenis, which controlled road access between Aszód and the rest of Ruvelka.

Initial Ruvelkan efforts to lift the siege ended in disaster with Fifth Army's failed counter-attack, forcing the defending Ninth Army to fend for itself. The Ruvelkan defenders refused to surrender the city to Syaran surprise, forcing the Syarans to commit the XXXV Corps to encircling Aszód. Unwilling to enter into a costly urban battle, Syaran forces attempted to shell the city into submission, but Aszód refused all invitations to surrender. The Syarans soon abandoned the idea of capturing the city and settled into a protracted siege. Under pressure from the international community Syara allowed food shipments to be sailed into Aszód, preventing mass starvation of the cities nearly 2 million inhabitants.

Ruvelkan forces within the city did not attempt any major breakout for the duration of the siege due to a chronic lack of heavy weapons and equipment, although small scale breakouts and infiltrations occurred periodically through the siege. The siege was finally broken on 18 June when Syaran forces pulled out in the wake of Ruvelka's strategic offensive in the summer of 2010.